University of North Carolina CFAR Core D Virology Laboratory; Director: Susan A Fiscus, Ph.D., Professor[unreadable] of Microbiology & Immunology; Associate Director: Leslie Petch, Ph.D.[unreadable] The Virology Core Laboratory provides laboratory support and facilitates basic AIDS research to CFAR[unreadable] investigators at the University of North Carolina (UNC), Family Health International (FHI), and Research[unreadable] Triangle Institute (RTI). Specifically the Virology Core Laboratory is a group of established investigators and[unreadable] very experienced technologists who provide a high level of expertise in state of the art clinical and molecular[unreadable] assays for culturing, quantitating, and sequencing HIV. In addition we provide institutional infrastructure such[unreadable] as a repository for storage of biological specimens in conjuction with the Immunology and Clincial Cores,[unreadable] current CDC-USPHS permit for importing HIV+ specimens from foreign countries, and a BSL-3 facility. The[unreadable] UNC Core D Lab provides scientific leadership locally to six CFAR working groups, nationally to the AACTG,[unreadable] PACTG, HPTN, and ATN, and internationally to CIPRA and the CDC-GAP. We stimulate collaboration in[unreadable] interdisciplinary and translational research by helping numerous CFAR investigators from a wide variety of[unreadable] UNC CFAR departments or institutions; strengthen capacity in Malawi, Democratic Republic of Congo, and[unreadable] South Africa, among others; foster scientific communication, contributing to 107 abstracts and 127 peerreviewed[unreadable] manuscripts over the past five years; sponsor training opportunities to numeorus foreign and[unreadable] domestic investigators and study coodinators; and facilitate technology transfer and development through[unreadable] promotion of scientific collaborations between UNC and Gen-Probe, CavidiTech, and Perkin-Elmer.[unreadable] [unreadable] Major accomplishments over the past five years have been in the fields of acute HIV infection and prevention of mother to child transmission (CDC-Breastfeeding[unreadable] and Nutrition Study, CDC-Global AIDS Project, NVAZ). Other major studies that are supported[unreadable] the UNC CFAR include: Adult AIDS Clinical Trials Group, HIV Prevention Trial Unit in Malawi, Fogarty international training grant, and grants dealing with HIV in compartments.[unreadable]